Card Technology articles from November 2006

Card Technology archives from November 2006

Smart Cards Are Popular. Can They Be Profitable?: Even with more mergers, smart card prices will fall, just not as sharply.
November 1, 2006... When Gemplus and Axalto announced plans to merge I wondered if antitrust regulators would object to a company controlling 50% of the smart card market. They did not, and now we have a dominant player in Gemalto. Apparently, the regulators...

More Trials On Tap For NFC.(contactless technology of MasterCard International Inc)
November 1, 2006... The phones will not be in stores anytime soon and the business case remains in doubt, but the interest in NFC is palpable, with a spate of new trials planned. Card Technology learned in mid-October that important pilots of the contactless...

NFC Announcements To Watch For.
November 1, 2006... More than a dozen NFC trials have already launched, involving payment, transit and stadium ticketing and information downloads. Many more are in the works and could launch before the end of the year. Of these, among the most interesting Card...

Newswatch: Europe.
November 1, 2006... TRANSPORT FOR LONDON SEEKS WAYS TO WORK WITH ISSUERS The operator of London's mass transit system has given up on extending the use of the 8.3 million Oyster cards to retailers around the city, but still hopes to work with organizations...

Newswatch: Asia-Pacific.(I'M Technologies )
November 1, 2006... OBERTHUR BUYS ASIAN SMART CARD VENDOR France-based Oberthur Card Systems announced last month it plans to buy Singapore-based smart card vendor I'M Technologies for S$34 million (17 million euros) in cash, hoping to lower its cost base and...

Smart Cards Win Some, Lose One, In U.S.: "HSPD 12 is not a national ID, but it does something never before done in this country.".
November 1, 2006... New identification projects moving forward in the United States could put smart card IDs in the hands of tens of millions of government workers and contractors, emergency personnel, transportation workers and travelers over the next few years....

Newswatch: Americas.(Rio Grande do Sul)
November 1, 2006... BRAZILIAN BANK PLANS HIGH-TECH DEBIT CARD Banrisul, a state-owned bank in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, plans next year to begin rolling out a chip-based debit card carrying a digital certificate for online banking...

People On The Move.(appointments)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... France-based chip maker Inside Contactless has named Bertrand Moussel as executive vice president of sales for Latin America and EMEA. He has worked at smart card vendors Gemplus and Oberthur. Also, Inside appointed Goh Say Yeow as executive...

Calendar.(Calendar)
November 1, 2006... November 16-17: GSM Americas - Acapulco, Mexico Organized by Informa Telecoms & Media For more information, contact: Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7017 5506 E-mail: informaibr.co.uk Web site:...

NFC: Can Operators And Banks Work Together?: Payment is touted as the first global application that will run on the much-anticipated next generation of NFC handsets. But before many subscribers can tap their phones for purchases, mobile operators and banks have to hash out a few issues.
November 1, 2006... Mobile network operators and banks have regarded each other with suspicion for years, ever since the first mobile payment services launched in the 1990s. Mobile telcos have been keen to find new revenue sources to boost their ARPU, or...

Bridging the Gap Between Cards and PCs.
November 1, 2006... Security and convenience are driving growing demand for smart card readers that plug into personal computers. But both the PC and smart card industries are constantly evolving, which means organizations trying to combine smart cards and PCs...

Is Contactless Secure Enough For Payment Cards?: Contactless cards have strong antifraud features, but some wonder if it's enough.
November 1, 2006... When Geb Masterson started his company in May, he sold microfiber bandanas with colorful patterns. Then, in September, his California-based Kena Kai said it would offer a new product: Leather wallets with protective liners made of nylon, nickel...

Ready To Dominate?: Less than a year after Gemplus International and Axalto announced their planned merger, Gemalto is making its massive presence felt. The $2 billion behemoth promises to reshape the industry-while competitors fight for survival.(Gemalto)(Gemplus International S.A.)(Axalto)(Company overview)
November 1, 2006... Gemalto cast its hulking shadow over the smart card industry almost from the day of the surprise merger announcement last December by executives of Gemplus International and Axalto. It was then the scramble for market share among card...

The Post-Gemalto Smart Card World.(Gemalto France)
November 1, 2006... Gemalto France Not renewing contract employees, which made up 17% of Axalto's work force alone. Cuts to permanent employees widely expected, with some predictions putting layoffs at 20% or more of Gemalto's 11,000 employees. One U.S. plant...

Dominant Player: Card vendors are confronting the new reality of plummeting SIM card prices and a giant in their midst. Here is how Gemalto compares with its top rivals.(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Three times bigger Combined, Gemplus and Axalto would have owned more than three times the market share of the next largest card vendor in 2005. (As percentage of the total 2.1 billion smart cards shipped.) R&D Advantage Gemalto's...

Advertising Index.
November 1, 2006... Advanced Card Systems Ltd. 32 Tel: + 852 2796 7873 Web site: www.acs.com.hk E-mail: infoacs.com.hk ASK 35 Tel: +33 (0)4 97 21 40 00 Web site: www.ask-rfid.com Atmel 41 Web site:...

New Markets for EMV: Emerging economies take the lead.(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... While Western European banks will steadily increase shipments of smart cards, their EMV card programs will be matched and surpassed by financial institutions in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, predicts U.S. research firm Gartner...